


In the mood for love

by himarisu



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Denial of Feelings, Fluff, Light-Hearted, M/M, Photography, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 18:30:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16413602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/himarisu/pseuds/himarisu
Summary: Daniel doesn't realise he and Jihoon might make a good match until someone points it out to him.(Or multiple of them.)





	In the mood for love

  
  


"Hey, look at this one."

Daniel props his elbow on the armrest for the nth time that day to see what new photo Jaehwan's discovered from the no less than thirty memory cards lying scattered around in the clubroom this time. Peering over at the small screen, it's a group photo at a canyon in Juwangsan National Park from the photography club's recent trip where they camped overnight to gaze at the unpolluted starry sky and take pictures of the fall colours.

Thinking about the fond memories he made on the trip, Daniel smiles to himself. "What about it?"

Jaehwan points to two figures in front, crouching down and holding similar peace signs, almost leaning into each other. "You and Jihoon look good together here."

Daniel blinks, confused about the comment that's come out of nowhere. "You think so? I feel like we look the same as usual..."

"I don't know," admits Jaehwan nonchalantly, pressing the button on the camera to zoom in on them. Seeing him and Jihoon fill up the screen entirely does a number on Daniel. "That's what I always think whenever I see you and Jihoon together. Speaking of which, I know he was assigned as pest control but weren't you two glued together for the _entirety_ of the trip?"

For some reason, the laugh that comes out of Daniel is louder than usual and he has to clear his throat when Jaehwan gives him a look. "Nah, just your imagination. I think you've been watching way too many chick flicks these days."

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Maybe Daniel is starting to hate Jaehwan for saying that because for some reason, his words are always the first thing that pops in his head whenever he thinks about Jihoon these days, which he will refuse to admit happens often. It's entirely unintentional—they just talk to each other and hang out together a _lot_ , so it's completely natural for Jihoon to be running through his mind more than other people.

"Niel-hyung?" prods Jihoon, tapping his finger on the back of Daniel's hand. "Do you know what you're going to get yet?"

"Yeah," replies Daniel, slowly retracting his hand. "The fruit bingsoo, I guess."

He thinks he hears something like an _I knew it_ muttered under Jihoon's breath, but he turns around to call a waiter over before he can make sure of it.

The dessert café is filled with university students—couples on a date, mostly—which is almost a given considering the shop is featured front and centre in the trendy Seoul blog everyone visits these days. Ever since Jihoon had asked Daniel if he'd be willing to go to a new chicken place with him one time after seeing it on the blog, it's become a habit of theirs to ask each other out to the latest new opening in Myeongdong or Hongdae, never bothering to ask any of their other mutual friends to come along with them.

"I was thinking, Jihoon," Daniel starts, watching as Jihoon looks up at him from his earl grey caramel soufflé pancakes. "How would you take it if a friend tells you that you look good together with someone?"

Wiping his mouth with a napkin, Jihoon seems to ponder on the question before his lip curves slightly. "Hm. Who's this person your friend said you look good with?"

His heart starts to race faster. "Answer my question first!"

Giggling, Jihoon continues, "It depends. It's kind of hard to say when I'm not thinking of anyone specific."

"Then what about with Seongwu-hyung? Minhyun-hyung?" Daniel is almost tempted to add himself as a third option, but swallows the question down his throat.

"Them?" Jihoon pops a strawberry from Daniel's bingsoo into his mouth and chews thoughtfully. "I'd be flattered, but I wouldn't necessarily agree... I think they look better together than with me."

Daniel doesn't realise the breath he's holding until he releases a long exhale. "Then," Jihoon looks up, and even though he's only _looking_ at him it certainly feels like he's reading right through Daniel. "Then if there were a person you'd agree you look good with, who would it be?"

Frowning, Jihoon says, "I already answered a question. It's your turn now." He leans forward, planting his chin on his hands and taps his fingers against his cheeks. "So, who is it?"

It shouldn't be anything serious for Daniel to mention Jihoon's name right now. After all, they're great friends and they get along well and _everyone_ knows that—it's no wonder that people think they look good together, because maybe they are good together. He can imagine Jihoon agreeing with the statement and laughing over it, brushing it off as just another one of the weird things their friends say when they feel the need to say dumb things like they have a quota they need to fill up on a daily basis.

But Daniel ends up keeping his mouth shut. Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't _want_ to laugh over it and push it aside like it doesn't matter, because he's beginning to find that it does matter.

"No one," Daniel shrugs, moving in to eat what's left of his dessert (not any strawberries, because Jihoon's taken them all already). "It was only a hypothetical question."

Sighing, Jihoon backs away from the table and folds his arms. "You think I don't know you by now? Fine, I'll figure it out myself." He stares at Daniel for a few seconds before he decides, "Jaehwan-hyung probably has something to do with it."

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


(Within the next few hours, Daniel manages to bribe Jaehwan with a week-long recording studio rental to keep his mouth shut.)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"'Sup, Daniel. Where's Jihoon?" asks Seongwu as soon as Daniel comes in after an exhausting and confusing lecture on first-order systems.

"How am _I_ supposed to know," mutters Daniel, collapsing onto the beanbag couch in the corner and releasing a loud groan. "I'm not a walking 'Find My Jihoon' app!"

Seongwu raises a brow before he hisses back, "Yeesh, I was just _asking_." Shooting him a glare, he goes back to editing his pictures on the PC they managed to salvage from one of the old IT rooms in the university. "Besides, you two are attached with a capital 'A'. I wouldn't be surprised if they really did install one in your sub-optimal system."

Daniel chooses to ignore the jab.

For the past couple of days, Seongwu's always been at the PC whenever Daniel pops in, maniacally changing the levels and curves and adjusting the pictures he's been taking for a photo competition that can win him free imaging equipment and an all-expenses-paid trip to Iceland. It's probably the reason why he's sharper with his quips these days, and surprisingly even Minhyun's presence in the clubroom can't save his unusual prickly personality.

Jihoon could do something about it. It's not a secret that Seongwu is occasionally afraid of him, and some think it might be because he's experienced one of Jihoon's outbursts sometime last year. None of the club members knows what exactly happened between them then—just that it was pretty serious and that it _happened_ —and Daniel would be lying if he said he isn't at all curious about the details.

It's too bad Jihoon doesn't have time these days to visit the clubroom with all the assignments he has to work on and the midterms he has to study for. Daniel would try to convince him to come by anyway, but he knows he's fully booked today since they're not meeting up: a cognitive neuroscience lecture right now that's three hours long, a meeting with his groupmates for a project on pharmaceutical drugs after, then office hours with his stats TA later, and... Okay, maybe they did do something to Daniel's body.

"Even if they did install one, it would just be called 'Find Jihoon', not 'Find _My_ Jihoon'."

"Woah, woah, Niel," says Seongwu, swivelling around on his chair and clutching his chest. "That hit _deep_ , man. What's all this about, though? Jaehwan said you were still in denial about it."

_So much for keeping his mouth shut_ , Daniel thinks, palming his face. "I was just correcting myself grammatically."

"I think the right word is _semantically_ ," Seongwu says, annoyingly. "By the way, I'm looking through all the pics I took at Juwangsan and came across a cute picture of you and Jihoon together. Want to see?"

The figurative perk of Daniel's ears must be obvious to Seongwu too if the way his smirk grows is anything to go by. Picking himself up, Daniel drags a chair over next to him and plops down on it.

On the monitor is him and Jihoon sitting on the camping chairs one of the members had been smart enough to bring, with Jihoon looking up at the twinkling stars that serve as a beautiful backdrop to the photo, and Daniel very obviously gazing at him with an affectionate smile on his face.

There had been something different in the air between them that day, whether it had to do with the mellow darkness, or the cool fall wind, or the way they spoke quietly like they'd wake up the mountains around them. Jihoon had confessed that he needed this trip as a getaway—that he wishes adventures like these would happen more often instead of the mundane routine his life's come to be.

Jihoon's eyes had been sparkling brilliantly while he confided in an enamoured Daniel—that he'd go rock climbing every week if he had the chance to, or kayaking, or skydiving, and even space diving—anything that could make him feel the thrill of being alive. 

("Can I come with you too?" Daniel had asked him.

Jihoon had turned to him then, taking his breath away with how ethereal he seemed to look under the moonlight, and gave him a small smile. 

"Did you even have to ask?")

"I'd have taken more, but I felt like I was intruding on you guys," Seongwu explains, cutting through Daniel's thoughts. "I'm happy this one came out well. It's practically screaming, 'I'm in love with you but you're too damn blind to see it!'"

"He's too busy looking up at the stars," reasons Daniel, trying to figure out how he's going to get the photo in his hands without Seongwu noticing. "Of course he wouldn't see it."

"Oh, so you're finally admitting it?" Seongwu is grinning from ear to ear now, and Daniel provides no response to that, though he's sure his ears are turning different shades of red. "You know, as smart as Jihoon is when it comes to making shit happen for himself, he's pretty terrible at people's feelings if you haven't noticed. And that includes his own."

Feeling his heart skip, Daniel asks, "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm _saying_ ," Seongwu gets up from his seat and cocks his head, "that I don't think you have anything to worry about if you ask him out."

"And who said I was going to ask him out?" Daniel tries to say indifferently, but fails when his voice cracks at the end of his question.

"No one did." Seongwu waves a hand, and then he's tossing his backpack over his shoulder and he's halfway out the door. "For all I know, Jihoon could ask _you_ out first. But everyone knows either will happen eventually."

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Jihoonie** :  
my groupmates ditched again.........  
let's go pc bang?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Somehow, even the little things Jihoon does that used to be trivial and insignificant leave Daniel's skin tingling and heart racing long after he's gone.

Everywhere he goes, Daniel tries not to ponder on the way the back of Jihoon's hand brushed lightly against his when they were walking home from dinner; the encouragement and ecstatic excitement in Jihoon's voice when Daniel was _so_ close to his ' _Winner Winner Chicken Dinner_ ' in the PC bang; the slight pucker of Jihoon's lips when he was concentrating on his readings in the study space they'd cosied up to in the corner of the Engineering building.

He tries not to daydream of the what-ifs—of what would have happened if he'd grasped Jihoon's hand in the split-second they touched, if he'd turned around to give him a tight hug when he eventually won the match, and if he'd leaned in to press his lips flush against his as he began to whimper because how _difficult_ his readings were.

But Daniel finds himself giving up in the end, letting himself freefall into the ocean of dreams of Jihoon, Jihoon, Jihoon.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


When Seongwu said _everyone_ , he might actually _mean_ everyone and not just their small circle of friends in the photography club, because the first thing Minhyun asks Daniel when he sees him in the Biology Department's office is how things are going with Jihoon.

"Same as usual," says Daniel, scooting over on the couch to make room for him. "Nothing's really changed."

"Ah, I see," comments Minhyun. "What are you doing here, by the way? Weren't you a math major?" 

Shying away from his piercing stare, Daniel mumbles, "I'm waiting for Jihoon..."

"Going on a date after?"

"...You could call it that."

Thankfully, Minhyun is different from everyone in the photography club (which Daniel is more inclined to call a shitposting club at this point) and doesn't tease or probe any further, though there's still a hint of a smirk on his lips when Daniel looks over at him.

"You and Jihoon make a good match."

Fiddling with his ear, Daniel turns away to hide the blush that's threatening to creep on his cheeks.

"Well then," Minhyun starts, getting up and dusting his knees off, "I'm heading off for my office hours now. Have fun on your date!"

"Niel-hyung has a date?"

Daniel freezes—because it's a voice he can recognise anywhere with how often he hears it. Turning around, he's met with Jihoon, who's wide-eyed and clutching at the straps of his bag, and Daniel's throat goes dry.

"Um, yes...?" Minhyun wavers, eyes flickering to Daniel for confirmation.

"No." Daniel jumps up suddenly like someone's pinched his thigh. "Nononono, I don't—I don't have one," though he wishes it really _was_ one.

"But Minhyun-hyung just said—" 

"I was talking about Daniel's date with you," Minhyun clarifies. "Didn't either one of you finally have the guts to ask the other out?" he continues without missing another beat, dropping the bomb like it's none of his business before he waves his hand and heads off towards the TAs' offices.

Daniel and Jihoon are left behind only to gape at each other with flushed faces, speechless.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"I don't know who it was, but..." Shivers run down Daniel's spine. He still feels the residual panic seep in whenever he recalls that day in the Biology Department. "Whoever it was, they owe us an apology."

"Hey, everything worked out in the end," says Seongwu, pausing with his chopsticks right above the grill. "Minhyunnie helped kick you into action! He saved you _both_ the pain of having to initiate _something_. And now, look—Jihoon went from gamemate to food trashcan to bug exterminator to boyfriend. It's a love story with a happy ending!"

Jihoon whispers into Daniel's ear. "My bet is on Seongwu-hyung—he was probably trying to drop hints to Minhyun-hyung about wanting a boyfriend too."

"I can still hear you, you know."

"Really?" Jihoon smiles and lays his head on Daniel's shoulder. "My bad."

Bits of rice are spat onto the table as Jaehwan begins to howl in laughter beside Seongwu, who visibly looks affected by the jab. "Maybe even guard dog too now?" he adds, meekly.

"The cutest guard dog," Daniel coughs under his breath, feeling an irrational amount of attraction at how Jihoon's managed to subdue Seongwu.

"Save the flirting for your dates," grunts Jaehwan. "Tonight we're _all_ gathered here for three things. One, the completion of my song recording; two, the submission of hyung's photo for the competition—"

"Oh, great. That means it's finally safe to go back in the clubroom again."

"—and three, the admission of these two fools' feelings for each other." Jaehwan gestures at the table with arms wide open. "Okay, we can continue eating now."

"Already ahead of you there, buddy," mumbles Seongwu, mouth chewing on a piece of meat. "Just saying, but I've always believed in the power of overnight trips. That shit _changes_ people's relationships." He pauses. "Maybe it's time I invite Minhyun to one of our outings."

"Wow, look at him acting like the club's finances didn't take a blow because of the Juwangsan trip."

Seongwu scoffs. "That won't matter if I win the photo competition."

"The beach sounds nice," Daniel contributes absentmindedly, now focused on grilling the meat.

"Fewer bugs, too," Jaehwan chimes in, looking at Jihoon who suddenly seems interested in the conversation. 

"The beach, huh... Minhyun's abs..." trails off Seongwu. It's hard to miss the figurative trace of drool in the corner of his mouth. Shaking his head, he declares, "Looks like I'm typing up another proposal for Sungwoon-hyung."

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The first thing Daniel sees when he walks into the clubroom on a Thursday afternoon is the sight of Seongwu clutching at Sungwoon's shirt, making incoherent noises as the president tries to shove him away.

"Please, please, please!"

"No! It's already November, for god's sake. Why are you being so annoying about it?!"

Spotting Jihoon munching on a bag of chips while watching them, Daniel saunters to the couch and falls onto him, pressing his side flush against Jihoon's as he slings an arm over his shoulder. "What are they fighting about?"

"The beach trip." He holds a stack of chips in front of Daniel's mouth, which he accepts gracefully with his mouth. "Even though Seongwu-hyung's won the prize money, Sungwoon-hyung's saying it's already too cold for the beach and I agree. I don't think we'd be seeing anyone's arms or legs at all, let alone anyone's _abs_."

Daniel hums just as Sungwoon threatens to break one of Seongwu's cameras if he doesn't let go anytime soon. "You're always free to look at _mine_ whenever you want to."

Jihoon raises a brow.

"You can't lie to me, Jihoonie," Daniel grins. "Don't think I didn't notice you staring at my body during that modelling shoot we had in the spring semester."

Jihoon's cheeks flush red almost immediately, and Daniel can't help but find it absolutely adorable so he ends up pressing closer to the boy to kiss his cheek. He thanks the _heavens_ he doesn't have to do that only in his dreams anymore.

"Hey!" Sungwoon barks from across the room, making them jump in their seats. "Anymore PDA and I'm kicking the both of you out like I did Jaehwan!"

They nod frantically, waiting for him to look away before Daniel turns to Jihoon and whispers, "What did Jaehwan do?"

"He played the song he made on repeat in the room."

"What," Daniel's brows furrow. "That's pretty mean of them."

"He _did_ play it through the speakers on full blast, though." Jihoon frowns. "Can you imagine us doing this if Jaehwan-hyung's singing was haunting us in the background?"

"Uh," Daniel starts, the image of Jaehwan strumming his guitar and serenading them while they're cuddling now newly ingrained in his mind. "I really didn't need that visual in my head..." 

Jihoon laughs at that, a smile so bright that the sun would pale in comparison. "You're stuck with it for the rest of your life now."

Biting his lip, Daniel is surprised by the next words to come out of his mouth—but it's not his fault his heart is full and is going to explode if he has to keep it in any longer. "And hopefully with you too."

With that, there are stars in Jihoon's eyes again, just like that night in the mountains when he was talking about everything he wanted to do in his life, and then Daniel feels the softness of Jihoon's lips against his own only for a brief moment.

"That would be nice."

Not as bold as Jihoon is, Daniel has to resist the urge to kiss him back until everyone is gone from the clubroom—after which he's sure he won't be able to stop. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is different from my usual writing but I hope it was enjoyable nonetheless! As always, kudos, comments, concrit are loved ♥
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/himarisuu)   
>  [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/himarisu)


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